Fall is undoubtedly here! It’s the season of apple cider and cinnamon donuts. Farms are bustling with children petting barn animals, mothers buying jams, and dads carrying pumpkins from the patch. It’s also the time of year when the family gathers to watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”
The Making of a Classic
Charles Schulz was a 20th-century American cartoonist best known worldwide for his Peanuts comic strip. Public Domain
Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000), the creator of the “Peanuts” comic strips, drew inspiration for his storylines and characters from his own childhood and from his observations of children’s behavior. There’s bossy Lucy, wise-for-his-years Linus, musical Schroeder, athletic Peppermint Patty, imaginative Snoopy, and, of course, the loyal and determined Charlie Brown.
With over 18,000 strips published since 1950,this zany group of kids and creatures covered a myriad of topics. It dealt with emotions and childhood joys, as well as struggles, friendship, and unrequited love.
When “A Charlie Brown Christmas” first aired on CBS on Dec. 9, 1965, it was the first animated television special based on the popular Schulz characters. Schulz worked on the script, while director and animator Bill Melendez (1916–2008) recruited professional child actors for the primary roles and kids who lived in his neighborhood for the rest of the characters.
When the special delivered huge ratings for the network, CBS greenlit another special; this led to “Charlie Brown’s All Stars” the following year. Top network executives, however, wanted a “blockbuster” that they could run every year—like the successful Christmas movie. Together with producer Lee Mendelson (1933–2019), Schulz and Melendez brainstormed and came up with a Halloween theme using the Great Pumpkin character already introduced in the 1959 comic strips.
Holiday Theme and Memorable Scenes
Because Christmas is such a child-centric holiday, and Santa Claus plays a very prominent role, Schultz thought it fitting to have a Santa-figure for Halloween.Linus declares that the Great Pumpkin will “rise up from the pumpkin patch” and hand out toys to little children. Linus even writes a letter to the Great Pumpkin, in the same way kids write letters to Santa, telling him what they want for Christmas. He tries to convince other children to become believers, but to no avail.
Linus laments the fact that the Great Pumpkin has become a divisive topic: “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” Nevertheless, his unwavering faith in the unseen squash remains unshakeable.
The characters of the "Peanuts" comic strip laugh at Violet's Halloween party. MovieStillsDB
As Violet hosts her first Halloween party, the children participate in apple-bobbing—something Schulz really wanted to add to the special, since the fall activity had fallen out of favor during his time. The scene is remarkably memorable when Lucy and Snoopy bob for the same apple, making Lucy exclaim, “Blech! My lips touched dog lips!”
As the “Peanuts” characters participate in trick-or-treating, Charlie Brown, unfortunately, ends up with rocks. The audience’s reaction was nothing short of astounding. Children all over the country sent in candy—intended for Charlie Brown—to Schulz’s studio in California.
Many Firsts and Interesting Trivia
Aside from being the first Halloween-themed special for the “Peanuts” gang, it’s also the first time viewers see Lucy snatch the football away just as Charlie Brown is about to kick it. Snoopy zooming around on his doghouse as the World War I Flying Ace is animated for the first time.In composing the special’s soundtrack, Vince Guaraldi (1928–1976) expanded his usual trio of instruments to a sextet to include a plaintive flute; it accompanies Linus’s lonesome wait in the pumpkin patch. In a rather uncommon move, he reused the “Linus and Lucy” instrumental from the Christmas special to provide the background music in two scenes. In the first, Lucy and Linus go pick out a pumpkin. The instrumental shows up again when Lucy drags a shivering Linus out of the pumpkin patch and back into his own bed. This helped establish the jazz piano piece as a classic “Peanuts” tune.
Lucy comes across a shivering Linus in the "Peanuts" movie "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." MovieStillsDB
Schroeder, known for his love of Beethoven, props up Snoopy’s Flying Ace alter ego by playing WWI tunes like “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” instead of Piano Sonata No. 8.
With two hit TV specials under the creative team’s belt, it seemed difficult to match those initial successes. However, the audience wholeheartedly embraced the “Great Pumpkin.” According to the Nielsen TV ratings, it received a 49.6-percent audience share with 17.3 million viewers, and tied with “Bonanza” on the week it came out. It surpassed the previous years’ Christmas and baseball-themed specials, which had garnered 46 percent audience shares each.
The success of the “Great Pumpkin” led to more than 30 years of creative collaboration between Mendelson, Melendez, and Schulz.
In a book published on the making of the hit television special, Mendelson was asked about the longevity of the show. He replied: “I have always been very proud of the ‘Pumpkin.’ It’s probably one of the best shows we ever created. … I’m very gratified by the good ratings all these years. … The adults of today were the kids of yesterday who watched the show and still do. That’s really something.”
Though American viewers may not be able to watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on network TV anymore, AppleTV, which bought the rights in 2020, is letting non-subscribers watch the special for free this year on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20. This offer is also extended to “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (Nov. 23–24) and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (Dec. 14–15).
Though (spoiler alert) the Great Pumpkin never materializes, this is a great family special that reminds viewers about the beauty of faith and hope, especially in the eyes and minds of children.
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